Obituary

Paula Marie Fishback passed away on Monday July 3, 2017. She succumbed to complications of Alzheimer’s Disease at Somerford Place in Annapolis. She was born in Newburyport Mass to Mathew and Nora Buckley Twomey, December 29, 1933.
After moving to Cohasset Mass in 1948, she graduated as valedictorian of her high school class and then furthered her education at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital where she graduated from the School of Nursing in 1953.
In November of 1954 she married Fred Fishback in the chapel at Fort Devens Mass. and followed him to Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines, where she not only worked in the base hospital but, in 1956, gave birth to James. After returning to the States that year, her family of three settled in Annapolis where Bryan was born in 1960 and John followed in 1964.
After 11 years of exemplary attention to her growing family’s needs, during which Paula found time to volunteer in various community organizations including Historic Annapolis, she partnered with her friend Norman Grovermann to form Three Centuries Tours. Upon Norma’s retirement in 1987, she became the sole proprietress until the business was purchased by Watermark Tours in 2004.
Recognizing the importance of tourism to the economic well-being of many Marylanders, in 1987 Paula became involved in the Maryland Travel Council, acting as President for two years. In 1989 this involvement led to her being recognized in the “Governor’s Citation” as “Travel Person of the Year”. In 2005, another “Governor’s Citation” recognized her “outstanding service over the past 25 years related to the planning and development of the Governor’s Tourism Industry Conference”. In 2001, Janet S. Owens issued an “Executive Citation” recognizing Paula’s “outstanding leadership” during her two-term tenure as the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference & Business Bureau’s Chairman of the Board.
Paula is survived by: her husband and three sons; daughters-in law Grace and Diana; grandsons Bryan, Andrew and Max; granddaughter Ana and by great-granddaughters June and Kali.